Proceedings of The 4th International Academic Conference on Education
Year: 2021
DOI:
Digitalization in Bulgarian Higher Education – Present and Future Opportunities
Mariana Boykova Kovacheva, Ivona Plamenova Velkova
ABSTRACT:
This paper presents the current status and outlines some future trends in the digitalization process of Bulgarian universities. Digital transformation is of great importance for our society because it gives the dynamics of the pace of development towards the new, global digital world. By converting traditional learning processes to digital, many educational institutions had the opportunity to flawlessly continue their work through the pandemic since 2020. Many processes and development plans on both European and national level have been considered. Some of the policies aimed at the educational digitalization comply with the “Education for Tomorrow” and the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) of the European Union (EU). The goals are to develop and enhance the efficiency of the digital education ecosystem and enhance digital competences and systems that develop digital skills. Good results and applications can be found in the electronic system for online training and online materials – Moodle. Another move has been made deploying online classrooms /Zoom, MS Teams, etc./, electronic student books, online monitoring of student attendance, electronic library with the necessary educational materials, online courses, online exams, etc. Based on existing technologies and policies, we also look at future trends regarding university education like artificial intelligence, smart classrooms, the use of big data to analyze student achievement and assessment. Bulgarian universities, and in particular – the University of National and World Economy follow the road of the newest trends and developments from the European commission action plan for the period 2021-2027.
keywords: Digitalization, higher education, trends, big data, security.